


Fifty-six hours (and the month that follows)

by CherryBlossomLesbian



Series: Prompt Fills [24]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitals, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Prompt Fill, Protective Bucky Barnes, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, set during tfaws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29935929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherryBlossomLesbian/pseuds/CherryBlossomLesbian
Summary: Bucky had tried to fight them too, but he had to deal with a completely separate hoard of agents keeping him from interfering with Sam's kidnapping. He heard a loud breaking sound and Bucky screaming just before he was thrown into the helicopter.So he's been trying his best to not let every one of his thoughts wander to how Bucky's doing. He's been trying not to think of if they decided to take Bucky too, or even if they didn't, how injured he is now.OR: Sam gets kidnapped. Bucky is extremely worried, and takes his protectiveness to an all-time high, which only gets him injuried in the long run.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson
Series: Prompt Fills [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978546
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Fifty-six hours (and the month that follows)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Ihave a prompt where Sam gets kidnapped and he gets beaten up, drugged on, you know, and Bucky is worried sick so when Sam is better, Bucky just becomes super protective of him and it almost got out of hand, so Sam asks why and Bucky just says he's scared of losing him, his best friend, so Sam holds his hands and comforts him saying he'll never lose him and they hug it out with Bucky letting out his tears and platonically cuddle the whole day. I just love that platonic fluff, hope you can do it!
> 
> Warnings: Kidnapping, non-consensual drug use, broken bones, gunshot wounds, blood, and hospitals. Also, there's a mention of a dislocated shoulder being popped back into the socket.

201598\. 

201599\. 

201600\. 

Fifty-six hours. 

He hadn't slept at all. Whatever drugs they were pumping into him was keeping him awake. His sanity was beginning to slip away after two days of no sleep, and he was counting every second that went by as a means of keeping himself stable. 

The only people he sees are the med staff that come in every two hours to refill the IV. He hasn't been given any food, but he's not hungry. 

He's just stuck, restrained on a metal table with a tube up his right arm. 

His main hypothesis is that they're trying to tire him out. Keeping him on drugs that make him stay awake until he's too far gone into sleep deprivation to fight them. After that, he doesn't have a clue what they want with him. 

He'd been taken during a mission. He had fought them, of course, but ten different agents were hellbent on getting him incapacitated enough so they could drag him into a helicopter. 

His nose was still swollen from the break they'd inflicted on it. He had a nasty cut in his abdomen that he could feel generating warmth, signalling an infection. They'd dislocated his shoulder too, but had the mercy to pop it back in before strapping him down to the table where he still laid. 

Bucky had tried to fight them too, but he had to deal with a completely separate hoard of agents keeping him from interfering with Sam's kidnapping. He heard a loud breaking sound and Bucky screaming just before he was thrown into the helicopter. 

So he's been trying his best to not let every one of his thoughts wander to how Bucky's doing. He's been trying not to think of if they decided to take Bucky too, or even if they didn't, how injured he is now. He heals faster due to the knockoff serum, but his wounds don't heal instantly, especially not bone fractures. 

He hears footsteps, and then the door to the small, concrete wall encased room he's in squeaks open. 

He first catches a glimpse of blonde hair before the owner of the footsteps steps fully in the room. 

He lets out as long of a sigh of relief as possible when he sees Sharon. 

"Sam, shit-" She remarks upon seeing the state he's in, bags under his eyes and nose swollen. "-gonna get this out of you, okay?" 

Sam just nods as much as the straps around his neck allow. 

She pulls out the IV first, letting the tubing fall ungracefully to the floor. She holds his hand where the IV went in, applying pressure to lessen blood loss. She grabs a knife from the holster on her waist, and with only one hand she slices all the straps open. 

"Alright, c'mon…" Sharon helps him sit up on the table first, giving him time to catch his breath before they have to leave the base. 

"Where's-" Sam starts, to which Sharon cuts him off abruptly. 

"Bucky's fine, he's back in DC waiting at the base. He fractured his elbow and the doctors haven't cleared him yet. Had to practically hold him back from sneaking onto this rescue mission." Sharon shakes her head in disapproval, before getting back on track with the mission. "You okay to walk?" 

Sam nods again as an answer as Sharon helps him off the table. He has to lean his weight on Sharon for much of the journey out of the base, his balance off from his lack of sleep. 

Once they're safely in a quinjet and heading the short distance back to DC, he falls asleep immediately on one of the cold steel benches in the cabin. 

~~~~~~~~~

"When can I stop eating oatmeal for every meal?" Sam groans as the nurse places yet another tray of the boiled oat porridge for lunch. To be fair, this is only his third meal since he's been stationed in the medbay until the doctors are sure the drugs that had been pumped into him are completely gone. 

"You said you wanted to be out of here as quickly as possible. Gotta speed up your metabolism." The nurse also put a water bottle and a carton of juice on his tray, before taking off. 

Sam sighed as he slowly stirred the oatmeal around in the bowl. He'd been cleared on everything-his nose was bandaged, but the x-rays showed that everything should heal right, he's on antibiotics for the infection from the cut in his side, and he's no longer sleep deprived in any sense of the phrase. The only reason he was still stuck on an uncomfortable bed in the medbay is because they couldn't pinpoint exactly what drugs he'd been given, and they wanted to make sure they were properly flushed out of his system before they released him. 

"Why do you look so grumpy?" 

Sam's lips curved into a tiny smile as he recognized the voice. 

"The only thing I've eaten in four days is oatmeal." Sam lifted his head up from stirring his lunch. "You better have brought me something." He pointed his spoon at Bucky accusingly. 

Bucky smirked, then closed the door to the medbay room as he began to unzip his leather jacket with his metal hand, revealing a harness he usually used for weapons above a black undershirt. 

The harness which was used for sneaking snacks into the base when there wasn't a mission. 

"I got Rice Krispie Treats and gummy bears." He reported, before pulling both out one by one. He was still down an arm, his right being encased in a sling, so it took him a bit longer than usual to maneuver the packages out. 

"You trying to up my sugar, Barnes?" Sam commented in fake complaint as he tore the package of gummy bears open and popped one into his mouth. 

"Maybe I am." Bucky shrugged. "Now, you can eat this stuff, but you also gotta eat your oatmeal again." 

"What's the point of bringing me snacks if it's just gonna leave me right back to oatmeal?" Sam began rummaging around the gummy bear bag as he spoke, searching for the green line flavored ones. 

"Bribery." The words fell out of Bucky like it was the most logical answer ever. 

Sam just sighed playfully as he grabbed a handful of lime gummies. 

~~~~~~~~~

And then Bucky started acting weird. 

Not too much more than normal, but it was a noticeable change. Even after Sam was released from the medbay, he was making sure Sam ate a good meal three times a day and kept checking up on him to make sure he was feeling okay. 

At first, Sam thought it was boredom from being grounded. After Sam was released from the medbay, he was cleared for all missions and training, but Bucky's arm still wasn't fully healed. Sam thought that maybe Bucky was filling the time he would usually take training or being on missions by being annoyingly protective. 

But then the sling came off, and Bucky was cleared, and he was still doing the weird overprotective things. He was even looking out for him more on missions, keeping constant communication through comms and asking every few minutes if Sam was okay. 

It went like that for a few weeks. Sam wasn't sure what was happening, and wasn't sure how to approach the subject without sounding rude, so he just put it off. 

And then on a mission, Sam was shot at. 

What would have been a clear shot right into his heart was blocked by Bucky jumping in the trajectory of the bullet before it hit Sam. 

The next few seconds went by in a whirlwind of pure chaos. 

Bucky fell to the ground with a bullet wound just above his heart.

Sharon came speeding into the scene, tackling the agent who had shot at them down. 

And Sam went to Bucky's side, putting as much pressure on the wound as possible while Sharon finished immobilizing the agent and calling for an extraction. 

His pararescue training kicked in then. Eyes are closed, but his chest is rising and falling with shaky breaths. Pulse is steady, but could decrease rapidly. 

"How is he?" Sharon asked once the agent was down. 

"Unconscious but breathing." Sam could feel the blood seeping out from the wound under his hands, spurring him on to apply as much pressure as he could. 

"Extraction ETA is two minutes." She reported. "What happened?" 

"Jumped in front of a bullet meant for me like a clichéd idiot." Sam shook his head. "All the overprotectiveness he's showered me with these past few weeks led to this." 

There was the sudden noise of buzzing invading his eardrums, and then Sharon touched the bluetooth device in her ear to accept an incoming call. 

"Extraction is here." Her gaze fell onto the open door that led out of the small base. "Let's get a move on." 

Sam nodded, and once again let his pararescue training take over to transport Bucky safely. 

If he just let his mind focus on the task at hand, his brain wouldn't wander to thoughts about anything else. 

Namely, how to talk to Bucky about this if -no, when he's okay. 

~~~~~~~~

"No organ tissue was damaged. Narrowly avoided his heart, through." The doctor said as he led Sam and Sharon down the blank walls of the hospital corridor, clipboard in hand. 

They had to take Bucky to a real hospital instead of the SHIELD medical bay. The hospital was closer and Bucky was losing a lot of blood, so they made the executive decision to get him help as fast as possible. 

It took a little bit of convincing the nurses and doctors to give him the right doses of medicine to account for his enhanced metabolism, but a couple flashes of SHIELD badges, and a single call from Dr. Cho had them giving in. 

"Due to his accelerated healing factor, he should have a rather smooth recovery. We just need him to stay for a bit so we can be sure nothing else is injured." The doctor stopped as he reached a closed door with another clipboard decorating it. it read: 

'Patient: James B. Barnes  
DOB: March 10th, 1917  
Blood Type: O  
Allergies: Benzylpenicillin  
Reason for admission: GSW  
Note(s): Patient is enhanced. See nurses' station for more details. Patient is an upper limb amputee. Patient has PTSD.' 

"He's resting now, but you can see him." The doctor turned the handle and opened the door up a bit, just enough for them to pass through. 

Sam entered first, followed closely by Sharon.

The heartbeat monitor gave a relatively steady beat, and Bucky looked peaceful in the bed. His head was situated on the pillow, a blanket draped over his chest which was left bare for easier observation of his wound, which was the cause of the clean white bandages wrapping around his entire chest. There was an IV in one of the veins on the inside of his flesh elbow. 

"We're giving him painkillers, the dose altered to suit his metabolism, and an antibiotic." The doctor added when he caught Sam's eyes focusing on it. 

"Thank you, Doctor. We really appreciate it." Sharon put on her best impression of a professional, shaking the doctor's hand and bidding him farewell, before the mask fell off and she was back to her normal self. 

"Lord, Barnes, you really did yourself in this time." She took in the sight of their friend as she moved closer to him, and even through he looked healthy enough in the hospital bed, they both knew this went further than his physical injuries. 

There was a hidden reason Barnes had been overprotective enough to step in front of a bullet for him, especially when he could have just tried to deflect it with his metal arm, and Sam was going to figure it out. 

Sam sighed and joined Sharon at Bucky's bedside. 

"When you wake up, we've got some serious talking to do." Sam commented, and Bucky's eyebrows knitted together in his sleep before relaxing once again. 

Sam wondered what kind of dream he was having. 

He hoped it was happy. 

~~~~~~~~

Bucky woke up a few hours later. 

He blinked a few times, looked at Sam, smiled, whispered "You're okay.", and then went right back to sleep. 

He woke up another few hours after that, and stayed awake for more than a minute. 

Sam let him eat the hospital-provided breakfast before jumping into the questions that had been burning in his mind for weeks. 

"So." Sam began, and Bucky's face contorted into an expression Sam couldn't identify. It was almost like disappointment mixed with pain. "Are we going to talk about what happened." 

Bucky shrugged, moving the bandages on his chest down just a millimeter. "I mean, I've always been saving Captain America's ass. This was no different." 

"Except it was." Sam's tone grows serious. It's not mean, but it comes out harsh in a way Sam hates. "You've been so protective since I got taken last month, and this was just an extension of that, wasn't it?" 

Bucky hung his head down in defeat. "I didn't mean to be... overprotective. I was just scared." His voice comes as a whisper, so low and quiet Sam has trouble even hearing it. 

"Scared of what, exactly?" Sam's prodding, he knows it now, but he's already got Barnes on the verge of talking about his feelings and he's not letting the rare moment slip out of his grasp. 

"Of losing you." His voice breaks in the middle of the sentence, and even with his head down Sam can tell he's about to cry. "You're my best friend. The whole time you were gone, and we didn't know what they were doing to you...I just felt so helpless. I couldn't do anything. Nobody would let me help with search efforts, I couldn't go on missions, I was just...stuck. For fifty-six hours, I thought I'd lost you forever." Bucky's sad and terrified tone makes Sam's heart want to break into a million tiny pieces. 

"Buck-" Sam reaches out, taking Bucky's right hand in his own and holding it close. "I'm right here, okay? I won't leave. I promise." 

A sob is punched out of Bucky, and a second later Sam is standing up to give Bucky the most awkward hug, careful of Bucky's bandages. 

As Bucky realizes what's happening, he wraps his arms around Sam as well, and then turns his head to sob into Sam's shoulder, letting out a month's worth of worry through tears. 

An hour later, when a nurse comes by to check on Bucky, he finds his patient asleep, his head on Sam's shoulder as Sam is cuddled up in the small hospital bed alongside Bucky. 

Sam presses his finger to his lips on a gentle "shh" noise, and the nurse just smiles and goes about changing Bucky's IV as quickly and quietly as possible. 

The event teaches Sam a few things. 

One, Bucky has a natural instinct to protect, and he's imprinted on Sam to carry out that instinct. 

Two, sometimes Bucky just needs a little bit of platonic cuddling to make him feel better.

And three, and most important of all, is that him and Bucky's friendship will pass through every single barrier they encounter, emotionally or physically. 

They're best friends now, and although it does come with some ups and downs, neither of them would want it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to submit a prompt for me to write, check out the notes of my prompt fills series this fic is in!
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/cartersleia)
> 
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